100+ Microsoft Corporation Software Developer Interview Questions and Answers

Use synchronization techniques like locks, semaphores, or mutexes to prevent multiple processes from accessing shared memory simultaneously.

• Implementing a locking mechanism to ensure only one process can access the shared memory at a time.

• Using semaphores to control access to the shared memory.

• Using mutexes to ensure mutual exclusion and prevent race conditions.

• Using atomic operations to ensure that memory operations are indivisible.

• Using message passing instead of shared mem...read more

Designing an offline browser poses challenges such as data storage, synchronization, and user experience.

• Ensuring efficient data storage and retrieval

• Implementing synchronization with online content

• Providing a seamless user experience with limited connectivity

• Handling updates and changes to online content

• Managing cache and memory usage

• Dealing with security concerns

• Handling different file types and formats

Prove that given 5 points in a plane, there will be at least two points such that their midpoint is an integer.

• Consider the x and y coordinates of the 5 points.

• If any two points have the same x and y coordinates, their midpoint will be an integer.

• If not, consider the differences between the x and y coordinates of each pair of points.

• If any two pairs have differences that are both even or both odd, their midpoints will be integers.

• By the Pigeonhole Principle, there must be at ...read more

Given three sides of a triangle, determine its nature.

• Check if any two sides are equal to determine if it's isosceles

• Check if all three sides are equal to determine if it's equilateral

• Use Pythagoras theorem to check if it's right angled

• If none of the above, it's a scalene triangle

Insert an element into a sorted circular linked list.

• Find the correct position to insert the element based on its value

• Update the pointers of the previous and next nodes to include the new node

• Handle special cases such as inserting at the beginning or end of the list

• Example: Inserting 5 into a list with values 1, 3, 4, 6, 7 would result in 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Find node with maximum weight in a binary tree based on data and level of node

• Calculate weight of each node based on data and level

• Traverse the binary tree and keep track of node with maximum weight

• Return the node with maximum weight

Find the leftmost node in the same level as a given node in a binary tree.

• Traverse the tree level by level using BFS

• For each level, keep track of the leftmost node encountered

• Return the leftmost node at the same level as the given node

Find the longest repeating substring in a given string.

• Create an array of all possible substrings of the given string.

• Sort the array in lexicographic order.

• Find the longest common prefix between adjacent strings.

• Return the longest common prefix found.

• If no repeating substring is found, return an empty string.

Program to find minimum semesters required to complete courses with prerequisites

• Create a graph with courses as nodes and prerequisites as edges

• Use topological sorting to find the order of courses to be taken

• Calculate the minimum number of semesters based on the order obtained

• Handle cases where there are cycles in the graph

Count total palindromic substrings in a given string.

• Iterate through each character in the string and consider it as the center of a palindrome. Expand outwards to find all palindromic substrings.

• Use dynamic programming to efficiently check if a substring is a palindrome.

• Consider both odd-length and even-length palindromes.

• Example: Input 'ababa', output 7 (a, b, a, b, a, aba, aba)

Use exponentiation by squaring algorithm to find nth power of a number in shortest computational time.

• Use recursion to divide the power by 2 and multiply the base accordingly

• If power is odd, multiply the base with the result of recursive call

• If power is negative, take reciprocal of base and make power positive

• Handle edge cases like power=0 and base=0 or 1

• Time complexity is O(log n)

Count the number of times a substring appears in a string.

• Use a loop to iterate through the string and check for the substring at each index.

• Use the count() method to count the number of occurrences of the substring.

• Consider using regular expressions to find all occurrences of the substring.

• Handle edge cases such as empty strings or substrings.

WAP to check if binary tree is height-balanced and write testcases

• A binary tree is height-balanced if the difference between the heights of its left and right subtrees is not more than 1

• Use recursion to check if each subtree is height-balanced

• Write testcases to cover all possible scenarios, including empty tree, single node tree, and unbalanced trees

Data structure and code for BFS of N-ary tree

• N-ary tree can be represented using a node class with a list of child nodes

• BFS can be implemented using a queue data structure

• Iterate through the queue and add child nodes to the queue

• Pop the node from the queue and process it

• Repeat until the queue is empty

Code to find inorder successor of given node in binary tree

• Check if the given node has a right subtree, if yes then find the leftmost node in the right subtree

• If the given node does not have a right subtree, then traverse up the tree until we reach a node which is the left child of its parent

• If we reach the root and the given node is the rightmost node, then there is no inorder successor

Print the leftmost node at the same level as a given node in a binary search tree.

• Traverse the tree level by level using BFS

• Keep track of the leftmost node at each level

• Return the leftmost node at the level of the given node

• If the given node is not found, return null

Search for an element in a rotated sorted array in sublinear time.

• Use binary search to find the pivot point where the array is rotated.

• Determine which half of the array the target element is in.

• Perform binary search on the appropriate half of the array to find the target element.

• Time complexity is O(log n).

C code to print last n lines of a file given file pointer and integer n.

• Use fseek() to move the file pointer to the end of the file

• Count the number of newline characters encountered from the end of the file until n lines are found

• Use fgets() to read and print the last n lines

IPC stands for Inter-Process Communication. It is a mechanism that allows processes to communicate with each other.

• Types of IPC include shared memory, message passing, and pipes.

• Shared memory allows processes to share a portion of memory.

• Message passing involves sending messages between processes.

• Pipes are a unidirectional form of communication.

• Shared memory is faster than message passing, but message passing is more reliable.

• Pipes are useful for simple communication between ...read more

The founder of C language is Dennis Ritchie.

• Dennis Ritchie is the creator of the C programming language.

• He developed C language at Bell Labs in the early 1970s.

• C language is widely used for system programming and developing other programming languages.

Find the nth element in a tribonacci series.

• Use recursion to solve the problem.

• Handle base cases for n=0, n=1, and n=2.

• For n>2, use the formula t(n)=t(n-1)+t(n-2)+t(n-3).

• Return the value of t(n) for the given n.

Find the leftmost node in the same level as a given node in a binary tree.

• Traverse the tree level by level using BFS

• For each level, keep track of the leftmost node encountered

• Return the leftmost node in the level of the given node

Find the nth largest number in a binary tree

• Traverse the tree in-order and store the values in an array

• Return the (n-1)th index of the sorted array in descending order

• Use a max heap to keep track of the largest n elements

Merging two sorted linked lists and writing test cases.

• Create a new linked list to store the merged list

• Compare the first nodes of both lists and add the smaller one to the new list

• Repeat until one of the lists is empty, then add the remaining nodes to the new list

• Write test cases to cover all possible scenarios, including empty lists and lists of different lengths

Find the intersection point of two linked lists.

• Traverse both lists and find their lengths.

• Move the head of the longer list to make both lists equal in length.

• Traverse both lists in parallel until the intersection point is found.

C language was developed in 1972.

• Developed by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs.

• First appeared in 1972.

• Influential in the development of many other programming languages like C++, Java, and Python.

Optimizing code for reduced time complexity by using efficient algorithms and data structures.

• Use efficient data structures like hash tables, binary search trees, or priority queues.

• Avoid nested loops and try to reduce the number of iterations.

• Utilize dynamic programming or memoization to store and reuse intermediate results.

• Consider using bitwise operations for certain calculations.

• Optimize recursive functions by eliminating redundant calculations.

C language is a high-level programming language known for its efficiency and flexibility.

• C language was developed by Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs in the early 1970s.

• It is widely used for system programming, developing operating systems, and embedded systems.

• C is a procedural programming language with a rich set of built-in functions and operators.

• Example: printf() function is used to print output in C language.

Design an elevator system for efficient vertical transportation.

• Divide building into zones to optimize elevator usage.

• Implement algorithms for efficient elevator scheduling.

• Include safety features like emergency stop buttons and overload sensors.

• Consider user interface for passengers to select floors and monitor elevator status.

I'm sorry, could you please clarify what type of program you are referring to?

• Ask for more information about the program in question

• Provide examples of different types of programs

• Clarify the context of the question